http://wilsonnews.net/go en paul@wilsonnews.net Copyright 2008 2008-12-29T00:12:00-06:00 http://wilsonnews.pmhclients.com/go/home/comments/a_family_christmas/ http://wilsonnews.pmhclients.com/go/home/comments/a_family_christmas/#When:00:12:00Z We have truly enjoyed both sides of our family this Christmas! Two days after we landed in Minneapolis, Minnesota we drove to Davenport, Iowa to celebrate Christmas with Roxanne’s side of the family. We’ve enjoyed having our daughter Kerra with us too! After a few short days in Davenport, we drove back to Roseville, Minnesota for a Wilson family reunion. We’ve had family gatherings every day this week. Here are some of the fun pictures. The Wilson grand-kids and great grand-kids. (We were only missing one who couldn’t come from California.) Cousins enjoying video games at Aunt Dawn and Uncle Lee’s home. My siblings, youngest to oldest, left to right. Our spouses standing behind us. All of us together. This was our first time together like this in ten years! It was a very special time for us to enjoy together realizing that we nearly lost our mother this year to cancer. Dad also successfully fought his own cancer. Mom and Dad are both doing exceptionally well and we all thank the Lord.  They celebrated 60 years of marriage in August, 2008. This was also our last Christmas together like this before we leave for the mission field in Mexico. 2008-12-29T00:12:00-06:00 http://wilsonnews.pmhclients.com/go/home/comments/cold_hands_warm_hearts_shocking_change/ http://wilsonnews.pmhclients.com/go/home/comments/cold_hands_warm_hearts_shocking_change/#When:23:56:00Z Flying from South Texas to Minnesota in December… you can imagine what we experienced. It was in the 70’s when we left Texas and -6 when we landed in Minnesota less than four hours later. One of our first days here, we helped Paul’s mom and dad shovel out their driveway. We also had the privilege of enjoying a cup of coffee with some of our Rio Grande language school colleagues from Texas. The David Flinck family who are headed to Chile are also visiting family here in Minnesota.  They leave for the mission field in January. Gotta love Caribou! 2008-12-28T23:56:00-06:00 http://wilsonnews.pmhclients.com/go/home/comments/la_graduacioacuten/ http://wilsonnews.pmhclients.com/go/home/comments/la_graduacioacuten/#When:02:53:01Z I’m a little delayed in posting pictures of our graduation from the Rio Grande Bible Institute language school on December 9. We spent the next several days packing and cleaning to move out of our school apartment. We loaded our trailer and stored it in Texas and now are in Minnesota, but that is another post… We are thrilled to be done with the formal training and preparation for serving in Mexico. Now we’d like to show you some of the pictures of our celebration event. Check out those smiles! In all reality, the whole family “graduates” from an experience like this. We thank our kids for their patience, hard work, and support all the while that Mom and Dad were in school. As president of the class, I had the responsibility during the program to present the class gift to the president of RGBI. The ceremony ended with a time of prayer and commissioning of the graduating students. The picture below is our class. Two of our colleagues were missing that night because of having to leave early for a family need. After the ceremony and receiving line, everyone was taking pictures. Here are just sampling of a few of our friends. I hesitate to post these because I wish I could post pictures of all our friends. We have many good memories of the people we have been with. This last picture is with Julio and Alma Varela. In our first semester, Alma was our grammar teacher and Julio was my conversation teacher. We really appreciate this quality couple from Mexico who are helping to train missionaries for Spanish ministry. They were such an encouragement to us. They are truly ministers at heart and have impacted our lives. 2008-12-19T02:53:01-06:00 http://wilsonnews.pmhclients.com/go/home/comments/finals/ http://wilsonnews.pmhclients.com/go/home/comments/finals/#When:21:20:00Z This probably isn’t what you think of when you read the title, “Finals” but finals for us are more than just a few tests in language school. Regarding the final exams, as of this writing, Roxanne and I have 2 down and 1 to go, and Peter has 1 down and 3 to go. Regarding the other “finals”, some of the RGBI winter volunteers under the direction of Don Graber have been helping to get our car ready for the drive down into Mexico in February.  Here they’re putting in a new fuel pump.  We are also packing and cleaning our apartment. Our trailer and car will be loaded this week and parked here in Texas for the next two months.  Monday, December 15, we fly to the midwest for Christmas and a time of deputation.  We’ll be sending out word of our itinerary very soon. Last Saturday afternoon, Joelle had her “final” piano recital here at RGBI.  She’s been taking lessons all year. That same evening, the first semester language students gave us graduating students a speacial dinner and time of fellowship. After dinner was a big bonfire for “s’more-fun.” Along with roasting marshmellows and singing songs, a couple of us got the bright idea of burning our Spanish writing manuals from grammar class for even “s’-more fun”! We did it one section at a time to savor the experience. It’s been a great year and we have truly enjoyed the fellowship we have shared with all our classmates. 2008-12-08T21:20:00-06:00 http://wilsonnews.pmhclients.com/go/home/comments/language_school_chapel/ http://wilsonnews.pmhclients.com/go/home/comments/language_school_chapel/#When:21:53:01Z Each semester here at Rio Grande Bible Institute the graduating class has the privilege of taking one of the biweekly chapel services. Here’s a picture of our whole class after chapel was over...some of us are still in costume. Below is a pictorial walk-through of the highlights of our service. It was a pleasure to truly minister in Spanish to the rest of the language school, the Bible school, and the faculty and staff of RGBI. Michael opened the service with a story and prayer. There was special music and then an offering. During the offertory, our class displayed a slide show of each student or family reminding everyone where we are all headed to serve after language school. Roxanne and I were surprised when our picture(s) came up because one of our classmates had obtained a copy of a really, really, really old picture of us at Camp Forest Springs! The next two pictures below show the two slides in sequence as they were shown on the big screen in chapel. After the offertory, the “surprise slide” guilty party, David Flinck, lead the congregation in a song while we all got ready for our skit. It’s hard to capture the skit especially if you don’t know everyone, but know this, it was really fun! It involved our entire class and captured (or better said, exaggerated) a little of who each one of us is. Everyone had at least one speaking part and again, totally in Spanish. The skit revolved around the theme of our chapel, “Giving Thanks”. The skit set up the message from Philippians 4:4-9. When the skit was over, the lights on stage went out and I stepped forward to share about a 10 minute devotional. As I said above, it was a pleasure to truly minister in Spanish to the rest of the language school, the Bible school, and the faculty and staff of RGBI. With this project completed, we are really feeling like the end has come. I will share more in the near future of our plans as we prepare to leave RGBI. 2008-11-30T21:53:01-06:00